"Do Whatever He Tells You"

(The following is a homily given on the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, Enid OK, 1/17/16)

Reading 1 Is 62:1-5

Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10

Reading 2 1 Cor 12:4-11

Gospel Jn 2:1-11

“Do whatever he tells you.” 

These are powerful words.  They are words that are simple, yet direct.  They don’t mess around.  They cannot be misinterpreted. 

“Do whatever he tells you.”

So, the logical question becomes: “What is Christ telling us to do?”

From all of our readings today, I think its fair to say that we get the message of trust.  Turst in God’s ability to save us from our forsakenness and desolation (see 1^st reading); trust in the spirit’s ability to endow us with his gifts (see 2^nd Reading); trust in Christ’s ability to change the circumstances in which we find ourselves (see Gospel reading).  “Trust me,” our Lord says to us today, “and you will be unable to stay silent about my love for you!”  “Trust me,” he tells us, “and you will be incapable to remaining quiet about my endless mercy!”

All because you will come to know Him, and love Him, and so want to serve him in the way he has asked us as his army of saints.  He will ask some of us to bring healing, some of us to perform mighty deeds, some of us to prophesy, some of us to proclaim the Gospel in various tongues.  He will ask some to pray, some to mourn, some to overcome adversity, some to be the littlest of flowers in his divine garden.  And tells us all to trust.

What better example could we have than in our Blessed Mother, who today shows us what it means to trust?  With unconditional trust the ability of her Son to change the anxiety of the wedding party into joy, she instructs the servers to follow Jesus’ command.  She could not have known exactly what her son would do, but the faith she placed in her Son gave her the confidence not to have to know, thus showing us the quality of true belief.

Our Lady shows us that our faith in Crist is based on an inherent trust.  We can only be faithful to the things that Jesus asks of us through His Church if we trust in Jesus’ love for us.  This can oftentimes be marred by the very imperfect elements of the Church, but these human scars cannot detract from the divine reality of God’s love for us and his desire that we be truly happy. 

This bring us the notion of the “rules” we follow as believers.  Many think that the morality that the Church expounds is an archaic devise to keep the minions under the thumbs of the hierarchy.  But that cannot be further from the truth.  Christ ordained that he bring the Good News to the world through the frail and weak hands of us.  Through our weakness, we are able to amplify God’s strength – to channel it so as to bring his love to the world.  We channel God’s strength by recognizing our weaknesses for what they are – insufficiency, brokenness, sinfulness.  It is not in our reveling in, justification of, or denial of the truth of these weaknesses that God speaks his love, but rather in our willingness to be vulnerable to the intimate healing power of God for the world to see His strength. 

The code of morality we live by helps us do this.  It does not pretend to make excuses for our struggles, nor does it condemn us for the crosses we bare.  No, it empowers us to carry our cross; it encourages us to think of the hour of fulfillment, in which we will lay our crosses and our crowns at the feet of Jesus.  It is the way in which we echo our Blessed Mother, and we “do whatever” Jesus tells us to do, knowing that, even in the most challenging acts of obedience we might face, we will be given the strength we need to bring glory and praise to our creator.

This is our purpose, my brothers and sisters.  This is our charge by which we take possession of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are reconciled to Him, and so given the privilege of feasting on the banquet of his Body and Blood.  By doing whatever Christ tells us, we are made complete, whole, and united to our passionate lover, our intimate friend, and our merciful God. 

The Great Transition of "Yes"

(The following is a homily given on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, Enid OK, 1/10/16)

Reading 1 Is 42:1-4, 6-7

Responsorial Psalm Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10

Reading 2 Acts 10:34-38

Gospel Lk 3:15-16, 21-22

Over the past couple of weeks, we have rejoiced in the coming of our savior, who was born to us by lowly means in order to bring us to the heights of heaven.  We have heralded the Prince of Peace with the shepherds and the angels.  We have seen the salvation prepared for every people with Simeon and Ann as Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple.  We have brought our paltry gifts before the King of Kings with the magi. 

But this moment – the baptism of the Lord – marks for us a transition, for it is here that Jesus is manifested to the world as the beloved Son of God, and gives a public “yes” to his mission.

This is important for us because it is here that Christ sets a precedent for his followers.  Here he blesses the waters of baptism, and makes this sacrament the gateway for all believers into eternal glory.  He shows us the path to exultation, and it is a path of humility and obedience to the will of the Father.

In his baptism in the Jordan, Our Lord gives testimony to what the prophet Isaiah and the Psalmist foretold, that the path to God is through service and trust. God’s servant is upheld as an example of holiness.  God’s chosen one gives delight to God as a beacon of obedience.  The very Son of God gives his father glory and praise through selflessness. (see first reading and Responsorial Psalm)

In this most radical act of humility, Christ forges a path for his followers to take; a path that is a covenant between God and man, symbolically sealed by water, but truly sealed by his blood that he will shed on Good Friday.

Since this pivotal moment, his Church has been entrusted to bring the message of salvation to every corner of the world by means of the sacrament of baptism.  As Christ tells his disciples in his great commission of the Gospel of St. Matthew: “Go, makes disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt. 28:19)  It is here that he shows us that he is a God who “shows no partiality,” but wishes to bring salvation to anyone who would receive it. (see second reading)

By baptism, we are made sons and daughters of God.  We are this not because we somehow add to the number of siblings Christ had on earth, but by the fact that we become a part of his Body, the Church.   This is why the Church has always preached a Gospel of baptism – dying to ourselves, being buried in the cleansing waters of the sacrament, and rising to new life in Christ.

The baptism offered by Christ though his church is different from that of his predecessor John because it is more than a cleansing.  We see this in how John describes the two baptisms: “I am baptizing you with water, but … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (see Gospel reading)

Water is a symbol of cleansing.  It takes away the grime and filth that has built up on that which is cleansed.  But fire is also a symbol of cleansing.  The difference is that the cleansing offered by fire is a purification.  Like gold being refined in a furnace, the baptism of the Lord not only cleanses us physically, but transforms us into a completely new and redeemed creation. 

You see, my brothers and sisters, the sacrament of baptism, by which we become God’s children in a unique way, is the gift of our adoption in Christ.  This means that when we hear God speak of his “beloved” in whom he is well pleased (see Gospel Reading), he is speaking about us by virtue of our participation in the Body of Christ.  I have become his beloved son; you become his beloved daughter; not because we deserve it, but because Christ Jesus paved a path of love for us, and when he asked us to follow him, we said “yes.”

We said “yes” to him, through our baptism; we said “yes” to him in confession; and we say “yes” to him at this altar.  Yes to conversion; yes to repentance; yes to faith and hope and charity.

We are asked to help our world say “yes” to our God through the white robes of baptism we wear within our souls.  May we, then, give our assent to this journey before us.  It is a journey paved with humility and obedience.  And its destination is nothing less than eternal glory.

Another Way to Follow

(The following is a homily given on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Enid OK, 1/3/16)

Reading 1 Is 60:1-6

Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13

Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6

Gospel Mt 2:1-12

The Epiphany of the Lord is an event for which all of us here should be grateful.  It marks the time in which the Lord made known to the world that his Gospel was not simply for the Jewish people, but for every single human being.  

As Christians, we take joy in the fact that the darkness of sin and ignorance has been overcome by the LORD because he has given anyone who choses him the ability to carry his light (see 1st reading).  In our first reading, the LORD tells the Jewish people through Isaiah that His light has come to dwell within them, making them beacons for the world around them to follow.  Because the LORD has shown on them, “nations shall walk by [their] light”, becoming like sons and daughters following the guidance of their parents.

And has this not been the case?  Did not our own ancestors, who came from the different regions of the world, not end up following the light first kindled in the Jewish people?  Indeed, as the Psalmist tells us today, “every nation [has come] to adore” the Lord (see Res. Ps.), and it is because of the Love of Christ. 

Our second reading gives us the great consolation that everyone – Jew and Gentile – are meant to be “coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the Promise of Christ” (see 2nd reading) through the Good News.  This is the importance of the Magi for us.  They show us that God became Man to save men and women of every time and place.  They give witness to what it takes to receive his gift of salvation. 

In the Gospel we hear that these men – of noble birth and of great importance within their own time and place, “prostrated themselves and did [Jesus] homage.  Then they opened their treasures and offered” them to Jesus (see Gospel).  In humility and sacrifice, they not only pay homage, but give allegiance to the King of Kings.  The actions of the magi uncover for us the price of redemption. Our ability to receive the gifts God has so lavishly set before us is contingent upon our willingness to bring to the Lord what we hold onto in exchange.  That means that we must be willing to let go of our treasure of prejudice, our wealth of fear, and our abundance of sins.  Until we let go of these things, we will be unable to grasp God’s love for us.  We will instead use the tools we have in our hands to see the world. 

We will judge the worthiness of others to be loved; we will fear the power of others; we will fall prey to the temptations that surround us.  In so doing, will inherently judge our own worthiness of love; we will fear our own weakness; and we will perpetuate the conditions needed for our temptations to thrive. 

My brothers and sisters, we must let go of the things which bind us to this place of sin and death.  We must trust in God’s ability to show us another way to follow, and so come to live in a different and better place – our true homeland which has been prepared for us as Children of God, and so coheirs with Christ. 

May this Epiphany of the LORD awaken within us a greater love and appreciation for Him who has paid the price for the redemption us all as well as a burning desire to follow His path, not ours.  May we use that same drive allow Christ to bring everyone into God’s loving embrace.